Meters

Bryshon Nellum of USC won the men's 400-meter race at the NCAA track and field championships at Eugene, Ore., vaulting the Trojans into the lead in the men's team standings. Nellum, a 2012 U.S. Olympian from Los Angeles, clocked a personal-best 44.73 seconds to finish ahead of Texas A&M's Deon Lendore (44.94 seconds) and Florida's Arman Hall (45.02). Nellum's victory earned 10 points, giving USC 32. Texas is in second place with 31 points, Arkansas is third with 26. Nellum and USC's Aaron Brown also qualified for Saturday's 200-meter final.

Ariana Washington has often been described as the fastest teenager on the planet, and she did nothing to discredit that description on Saturday in the CIF state track and field finals at Buchanan High in Clovis. The junior from Long Beach Poly repeated as 100- and 200-meter champion, an achievement matched by Khalfani Muhammad of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, who ended his high school career with five state track championships. Washington wanted to cap off her historic night by running on the 1,600 relay in hopes of becoming the first female to win two sprints and two relays at the state meet, but Coach Don Norford chose to rest his star with national summer meets on the horizon.

Two of the nation's best high school sprinters will try to make history at the 95th annual state track and field championships beginning Friday at Buchanan High in Clovis. All eyes will be on Khalfani Muhammad of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Ariana Washington of Long Beach Poly, defending champions in the 100 and 200 meters. Qualifying is Friday and the finals begin at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. Expectations are high for Muhammad after he clocked personal-best times in both events at the Southern Section Masters Meet last week.

Frozen yogurt. That's the reward 15-year-old sophomore Marissa Williams of Palisades plans to give herself after turning in the greatest performance by a girls' distance runner in City Section history Wednesday night at the City track and field championships at Birmingham. Records that were established in 1979 in the 1,600 meters and 1983 in the 3,200 were shattered by Williams, who won with times of 4:56.60 and 10:37.33, respectively. Her 3,200 time was 10 seconds better than the previous record.

Khalfani Muhammad of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame has never faced a camera he didn't like or taken on an opponent he didn't want to beat. That made Saturday's Southern Section track and field championships the ideal environment for Muhammad to put on a show. Facing competition from some rising young sprinters, Muhammad made it clear he's not ready to relinquish his title as fastest teenager in California. He ran a wind-aided personal best 10.33 seconds to capture the Division 3 100 meters.

The Southern Section track and field championships are set for Saturday at Mount San Antonio College, and the 100-meter races could be as sizzling as the weather. Khalfani Muhammad - the defending state champion from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame - continues to be the runner to watch, but there are a lot of competitors closing in, which should push him to keep lowering his times. In the Division 3 final, Muhammad will face a challenge from Encino Crespi freshman Tarrik Brock, who ran the fastest 100 time by a freshman in state history in the preliminaries at 10.57 seconds.

Legislation introduced by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) that would prevent cities from ticketing motorists who park at broken meters sailed through the state Assembly on Thursday. Assembly Bill 61 passed on a 71-0 vote and now heads to the state Senate, where it will be assigned to a policy committee, Gatto's office said Thursday. In a statement, Gatto said the legislation was meant to ensure that the maximum number of parking spots remain available for drivers. “Forcing someone to aimlessly drive around in search of a parking spot when there are perfectly good spots available is not good for the driver or for the environment,” he said.

For those who run relays in track and field, passing the baton can be scarier than a scene from "A Nightmare on Elm Street. " Just ask sprinter Morgan Simon of Los Angeles Loyola High. He remembers suddenly dreaming about dropping the baton. "I looked around frantically," he said. So when the passing of the baton comes close to perfection, it's time to celebrate, and that's what Loyola's 400-meter relay team did after winning the Mission League championship last week in a school-record 40.89 seconds, tops in the state this season.

You're not alone in waiting for the doctor to see you. A survey released Thursday by Consumer Reports rates the biggest gripes patients have about visting the doctor. Long waits in the exam or waiting room bothered many of the 1,000 people surveyed, rating a 7.6 out of 10 on the publication's "Gripe-o-Meter. " Most bothersome were unclear or incomplete explanations of a problem by a doctor. That scored 8.1 on the gripe scale. Other major complaints included delays in sharing test results, billing disputes and getting a quick appointment when you're sick.